The invention generally relates to computers and computer software, and in particular to methods, systems, and computer program products for redirecting a user from a metasearch website to a service provider website.
General-purpose search engines can be used by consumers to search for products and to purchase those products online. However, general-purpose search engines may lack efficiency to search for some domain-specific products, such as travel products. To fill this perceived gap, domain-specific search engines (e.g., metasearch engines or vertical search engines) have arisen to help the users purchase domain-specific products distributed by on-line service providers. Consumers can submit a query from a webpage at the metasearch website to specify the desired product (e.g., a flight or a hotel) and user criteria (e.g., number of passengers, departure time, arrival time). In response to the query, the metasearch engine searches in its product database and returns various product options to the consumer. The consumer may select one of the product options. The consumer's query is then redirected to the service provider distributing the product associated with the product option so that the consumer can obtain more information about the product and/or conduct a purchase transaction.
To redirect the consumer to the Internet domain of the service provider (e.g., an eCommerce platform of the service provider), the metasearch engine uses a complex generic uniform resource locator (URL), which includes information related to the metasearch and the consumer browsing history, and maps the generic URL to the destination URL for the service provider associated with the selected product. Each service provider may have multiple URLs that are assigned based on brand, geographical region, etc. In this instance, the multiple URLs are heterogeneous and may differ in format. Instead of being directed to the destination URL, the link may be broken and the query redirection may instead display an error message to the consumer. Such inconveniences may prove burdensome for the consumer and even lead the consumer to abandon the product purchasing process.
Further, metasearch engines must implement and maintain the different URLs and parameter mapping for each eCommerce platform providing product options in its product database. This requires a complex cooperation between service providers and metasearches to maintain up-to-date URLs for purchasing handoffs to the service provider.
As a result, significant dependencies and tight synchronization constraints currently exist between the connected metasearches and the service providers to ensure that the right URLs are finally used to redirect the consumers.